Artists

Artistic Director - Dr. John S. Hollins

John Hollins is a native of South Carolina and has appeared on national and international concert and opera stages as a conductor, collaborative pianist, organist, and baritone. Productions under his baton include Susannah (Floyd), South Pacific (Rodgers & Hammerstein), The Turn of the Screw (Britten), Man of La Mancha (Leigh), Suor Angelica (Puccini), Iolanthe (Sullivan), Candide (Bernstein), Orpheus in the Underworld (Offenbach), Le Nozze di Figaro (Mozart), Orfeo (Gluck), I Capuleti e i Montecchi (Bellini), Un Ballo in Maschera (Verdi), Carmen (Bizet), and a world-premiere version of The Last Leaf (Remson). Dr. Hollins has conducted and staged performances of choral music and opera scenes throughout Eastern Germany, including Berlin, Thale, Burg Falkenstein, Wust, Vieritz, Jerichow, Quedlinburg, Halberstadt, Leipzig, and Dresden. He also appeared in concert with coloratura-soprano Kathy McNeil and tenor Oliver Lucero in Prague, Czech Republic. Dr. Hollins was one of only four international artists invited to teach and perform for the inaugural festival of the International Center for Collaboration in the Musical Arts in South Africa. In 2015 he conducted the Midland-Odessa Symphony Orchestra for Standing Ovation: a Homecoming, a Midland Opera gala featuring world-renowned Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Susan Graham; and Handel’s Messiah with The Lubbock Symphony Orchestra and Lubbock Chorale.

Having conducted all six choral ensembles of Texas Tech University, Dr. Hollins currently serves as Associate Director of Choral Studies; Associate Professor of Music; and Artistic Director of The Lubbock Chorale. Dr. Hollins was the Music Director and Conductor of the TTU Graduate Opera Project and is a vocal coach for the TTU Music Theatre program, having helped to artistically shape productions of The Bartered Bride, La Traviata, Die Zauberflöte, Too Many Sopranos, West Side Story, The Ballad of Baby Doe, La Clemenza di Tito, and Il Barbiere di Siviglia. He has also conducted professional productions of Les Misérables, Cats, Mary Poppins, and Peter Pan for Lubbock Moonlight Musicals. In February 2017 he will appear at the Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA) convention as pianist and organist for the Texas Two-Year Collegiate All-State Honor Choir.

Hollins is also a conductor, répétiteur, and pianist for Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre (Iowa). As Music Director for the CROT Young Artist Program, he has conducted productions of The Mikado (2004 and 2014), H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, Into the Woods, The Gondoliers, Man of La Mancha, and South Pacific. As pianist for main-stage productions he has collaborated on productions of Le Nozze di Figaro, Carmen (2005 and 2014), Susannah, L’Elisir d’Amore, Aida, Salome, Tosca, The Merry Widow, La Bohème,Don Giovanni, La Traviata, Cavalleria Rusticana, and Pagliacci. From 2005-2007 he was a faculty lecturer and pianist/organist for the Summer Choral Institute of St. John’s College-Cambridge University (United Kingdom) and Texas Tech University. In 2005 he was the Co-Director of Music and pianist/organist for the Triennial Oxbridge Symposium of the C.S. Lewis Institute, affording opportunities to perform in Cambridge, Oxford, and Ely.

Dr. Hollins has collaborated with some of the world’s finest artists, including singers Danielle Talamantes, Allan Glassman, Kathryn Goeldner, Hector Vasquez, and Marilyn Mims—who have enjoyed leading roles at the Metropolitan Opera; and Arianna Zuckerman, Hope Briggs, Malcolm McKenzie, Cynthia Clayton, and Drew Slatton—who have enjoyed national and international opera and concert careers; stage directors Ed Bourgois, Gregory Keller, Bill Fabris, William Ferrara, and Stanley M. Garner; and conductors/coaches David Hill, Jon Spong, and Daniel Kleinknecht. Other collaborative keyboard credits include numerous professional, collegiate, and festival choruses and orchestras: the City of Oxford Orchestra (United Kingdom), Coro Favoriti, the Choral Arts Society of Louisville, the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra, the Louisville Orchestra, the Kentucky Opera Chorus, and the Columbia Philharmonic Chorus. He has performed at both divisional and national conventions of the American Choral Directors Association and served as a Repertoire and Standards Chair for the ACDA Southern Division.

Recent research and creative activities include the development of degree certification in Sacred Music at Texas Tech University; the study of choral repertoire by American composer Dan Locklair; the positive synthesis and the creative intersection of vocal and conducting pedagogy; and the development and direction of a musical and cultural seminar in Germany entitled Choral and Operatic Performance Perspectives of Middle Germany: a Summer Seminar and Performance Practicum in the Vocal Collaborative Arts, providing students the opportunity to study and perform in Sachsen-Anhalt, Sachsen, and Thüringen.

A strong advocate of music education and outreach, Dr. Hollins was the Associate Artistic Director of Voices of Kentuckiana, a community chorus in Louisville, and a music consultant for the Kentucky Opera Association, where he worked closely with the educational program “Music! Words! Opera!”– in which students create, compose, produce, and perform their own operas. An active church musician, he currently serves as Organist and Choirmaster at St. Paul’s-on-the-Plains Episcopal Church in Lubbock, having formerly served parishes in Kentucky and South Carolina.

Dr. Hollins holds the D.M.A. degree in choral conducting, piano performance, and musicology and the M.C.M. degree in organ and piano from Southern Seminary. He holds the B.M. degree in piano pedagogy from the University of South Carolina. His mentors include Max Camp, Larry Wyatt, John Dickson, Maurice Hinson, Ronald Boud, and Boyd Jones.